Snapshots 1

I walked among them this past weekend. They were tall, short, thin, fat, young, old, clean cut, scruffy. I considered myself lucky and felt very honored to be there.

Some wore hats to identify where they had been. Others had medals pinned to their chests. But they were all there for the same reason: to honor those who did not come home with them.

I stopped a few and asked if I could take their picture. I was never turned down. I had conversations with complete strangers. But felt like I had known them a lifetime. I walked away awestruck and humbled.

These men, they came from all walks of life to serve a country they love. I swelled with pride, as I too love this country and am forever grateful for what they have given me: FREEDOM

Retired USMC

Over 37 years of service

Two tours of Vietnam

Both Gulf Wars

Bosnia

Beirut when the barracks were bombed

Still teaching our soldiers today

AMERICAN HERO

Land of the Free

Home of the Brave

I was there this past weekend...I can't write about it yet

Words of Wisdom

He was just a teenage boy. Like many, he blended in with the rest. I think I remember taking his temperature in the health office on a day he wasn't feeling well. But nothing much more about him stands out in my mind. He was just another student among the 300 others. Then he became a man and my memory changes.

He returned to my building one day in a uniform...handsome beyond words. I had heard that he had enlisted and was serving in the Middle East. I had also heard he was a Special Forces sniper.

He came that day to see his middle school teachers, to thank them for the education they had given him and to tell them it had paid off. He made a special effort to thank his math teacher, a wonderful woman, for he finally understands why he needed to know algebra. I guess it made him a better shot!

No, this is not a story about a soldier who has lost his life. This is a story about a soldier who wants to save yours and thinks we as a nation may have made a irreparable mistake.

He now makes his living working for an 'unknown' entity as some kind of operative. His own mother has no knowledge of her son's occupation other than he rarely talks about his work. On the one occasion he did, this is what he had to say (I paraphrase):

"In my job I am forced to break bread with some really awful, horrible people. The one thing I want people to know is this: these people are glad Obama is our president. They are ecstatic. They are not afraid of Obama. They were afraid of George Bush. And that puts every one of us in danger."

I fear, my friends, we are in trouble.

A Photo Op

Yes They Are!

Picture This...

A beautiful sunny day...you are sitting in your car enjoying a diet in a neighborhood park on your lunch hour. A red-headed woodpecker has just caught your eye as it bobs up the side of a tree looking for its lunch. Suddenly it takes flight toward a wooded area where your eye is drawn to the ground just at the tree's edge where there appears to be another kind of nature taking place.

Your brow crinkles as you can't quite wrap your head around what you are seeing:
"Is that the naked bottom of a child?"
"Did that woman just pull a leaf off that bush and wipe that little girl's hind end with it?"
"She is not using a stick to dig a hole and bury poop...Oh no she is not!"
"Oh my god, she just wiped her hands on her pants and the little girl is going back to play on the equipment with no panties on...I am not seeing this!"

Oh, and get this...the woman never put the phone down through the whole event!

The things you see in the park on a sunny day.....

In Memory of Memory

Memory...those vignettes of things past that bring us joy, or perhaps even moment of pain. Memory...the place we go when the present is momentarily too painful and the past is serene. Memory...a way to bring those who have left us back into our lives even if only for a moment. Memory...crucial to negotiating day to day tasks without thought or concern.

But what of those who have lost this precious gift? Where once there were pictures and stories to be recalled, what is there now? Do the thoughts that created the pictures, the pictures that created the words, the words that created the stories, vaporize into thin air leaving a vacuous chasm instead?

I have seen first what those who suffer from complex memory issues go through. It is disheartening and sad not only to those who are afflicted memory disorders, but also for those who love them.

My husband suffers from a condition known as Transient Global Amnesia. It is a complex and complicated condition but supposedly benign. The amnesia is temporary, but he never regains the time and events that he loses during the attack. Time... it is as precious as memories.

It gives me pause, our situation, for while my husband's medical condition as frightening as it can be, is temporary and benign. I stop and think about those who are in the midst of the clouded effects of Alzheimer's disease...a progressive, degenerative, devastating illness that robs the mind, body and soul of who we are, leaving nothing but an empty shell in its destructive path.

I believe we are all guilty...guilty of taking for granted a blessed gift...the gift of memory. Do you ever consider what life would be without it? Stop a moment and do so...for then you shall never take for granted again the things you can remember.

New Things

So there is the Redbubble thing. And I am trying to figure it all out. I have created a profile and added some pictures. I have joined a group and am hoping to create some really cool stuff (cards, prints etc). I thought if I were lucky I might even sell something. But I got to figure it all out.

In the meantime, a shout out to David for introducing Redbubble to the rest of the blogging world. I hope you will check back in to see what it is I am doing and maybe, just maybe, you will see something you just can't live without!

Check out my profile and remember...it is under constuction while I am figuring it all out!

It Was But A Dream

I was taken by her words to a world I only dream about...a world that for me has only existed in books and movies. But I was there, right beside her and I too felt the excitement, heard the rustle of the grass as they gently moved through it. I heard the growls, saw the leathered palms and oh, how I wanted to touch them. I felt the time disappear and the letdown when it was over. I knew I had experienced something grand and I wasn't even there.

I too have looked into their soft brown eyes and watched as they watched me. But unlike dear Tessa, guides, grass and nature did not divide me from my ancestor...